All That You Touch
by eprouvcr
Summary: LIT/AU. Starting around episode sixteen; Jess shows up instead of Rachel; Jess Mariano comes to Stars Hollow to visit his uncle and when he meets a certain Gilmore his visit might just become permanent.


**whoops a new book again haha, its literati again woot woot.**

 ** _disclaimer; i do not, and will not, ever own gilmore girls; it's all ASP's doing._**

 ** _xxx_**

"This, boys and girls, is the story of true love. A beautiful girl from one county; a handsome boy from another. They meet and they fall in love. Separated by distance and by parents who did not approve of the union, the young couple dreamed of a day that they could be together. They wrote each other beautiful letters. Letters of longing and passion. Letters full of promises and plans for the future. Soon the separation proved too much for either one of them to bear. So, one night, cold and black with no light to guide them, they both snuck out of their homes and ran away as fast as they could. It was so dark out that they were both soon lost and it seemed as if they would never find each other. Finally, the girl dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her lovely face. 'Oh, my love. Where are you? How will I find you?' Suddenly, a band of stars appeared in the sky. These stars shone so brightly they lit up the entire countryside. The girl jumped to her feet and followed the path of the stars until finally she found herself standing right where the town gazebo is today. And there waiting for her was her one true love, who had also been led here by the blanket of friendly stars." It was the winter of 2001, the buzz of a nearing February putting all in a loving mood and Patricia LaCosta, otherwise known as Miss Patty, told the group of eager young children the tale surrounding the beloved festival. Older children and adults mingled around her studio, enjoying the tale they've all heard over and over again. Patty smiled at the children before her eyes landed on one particular guest, known by the name Rory Gilmore.

Rory sighed, before simply exiting the dance studio as Patty began a tale of one of her many romantic endeavors. Rory went back to the bus stop, as if she had just gotten off, and stood near a — thankfully — oblivious Dean. She didn't want him to know she cut school to have time to herself before being sucked into lovey dovey Dean world.

"So?"

Dean looked up and smiled at her, "It's depressing."

"It's beautiful." She countered with a small smile.

"She throws herself under a train."

"But I bet she looked great doing it." Rory grinned, as she always did when talking about books.

"I don't know. I think maybe Tolstoy's just a little over my head." That caused Rory to frown. Dean had potential.

"No, that's not true." Rory convinced. "Tolstoy wrote for the masses, the common man. It's completely untrue that you have to be some kind of genius to read his stuff."

"Yeah but…"

"Now I know it's big..." Rory sighed.

"Very big."

"And long..."

"Very, very long." Dean smirked.

Rory rolled her eyes. "And many of the Russian names tend be spelled very similar, making it confusing…"

"Every single person's name ends with 'ski'." Dean shook his head. "Now how is that possible?"

"But it's one of my favorite books. And I know that if you just give it a try you..."

Dean cut her off with a sigh, "All right. I'll try again."

"Really?" Rory grinned. Dean loved her grin.

Dean smiled as well. "Yeah."

"You won't be sorry."

Dean rolled his eyes, smiled still present. "Coffee?"

"Please." Rory's weakness. They got up and started walking through town towards their destination of coffee.

"Man, I thought Christmas was a big deal around here." Dean commented, noticing all the fuss for the Founders Firelight Festival. It was January nearing February and the buzz of love is all around.

"Well, this is a town that likes the celebrating. Last year we had a month long carnival when we finally got off the septic tank system." Rory remarked.

"A month long? You're kidding."

"No." Rory smirked. "There were rides and a petting zoo and balloon animals and a freak show."

"Uh huh," Dean caught on. "Okay, you almost had me going there for a second."

"Well we did have a ribbon cutting ceremony." Rory relented, falling into a synchronized step with Dean.

"So what are you doing Friday night?"

"Well, I've got the usual Friday night grandparents' dinner." Rory reminded, Dean should've known. "But I thought maybe if we get back early enough you and I should go watch the bonfire together. I mean, it's kind of corny, but it's really pretty. And they sell star-shaped hot dogs."

"How about if you get out of dinner at your grandparents' this week?"

"I don't think so." Rory shook her head. There was no way she could get out of Friday night dinner.

"Well, what if it's for a really special occasion?" Rory was confused. She hardly thought the festival was that special of an occasion.

"Well, that special occasion better include my being relocated to a plastic bubble if my grandmother's gonna let me out of dinner." Rory's wit was something Dean loved about her but it wasn't what he wanted to hear at the moment.

"There must be some other excuse that you could use." Dean was getting antsy.

"Like what?"

"Like it's your three-month anniversary with your boyfriend."

"It is?" Rory stopped dead in her tracks. It was? How could she have not known.

"Yeah." Dean nodded, ignoring the feeling he got. Three months was the biggest of all anniversaries. "Three months from your birthday. I mean, that's when I gave you the bracelet and that's when I figured this whole thing kinda started."

"Wow." Rory was chargin, how could she not know. "Three months."

"Actually, technically your birthday was on a Saturday, so really it should be Saturday, but I work Saturday and I planned out this whole big thing so I thought maybe we could do it on Friday."

"What whole big thing?"

Dean planned a big thing? How important was a three month anniversary anyways?

"Just this once." Dean pleaded. "Miss dinner. Please. Don't make me throw myself under a train."

"I'll see what I can do." Rory relented. It seemed important to him.

Dean smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." They continued to walked through the town as the fuss continued. "It's our three-month anniversary."

"Yeah it is."

"I feel kind of stupid that I didn't even know about this." She confessed. She really did feel bad.

"That's quite all right."

"I mean, I feel really bad that I missed our two-month anniversary."

"Quite all right too."

"How was it?" Rory asked, a smile on her face as she felt her chest lighten.

"Pretty good."

"I'm glad." Rory continued to smile as Dean draped an arm over her shoulders and they continued their walk.

 ** _xxx_**

At a different part of town on a different day, Lorelai was making her way into Luke's. After a near death experience with a paper mache star, Lorelai's annoyance with the love and the festival was growing. After some banter with Luke, the conversation between one Miss Patty and a Taylor Doose was too much.

"Can nobody talk about anything besides this stupid festival!" She shouted, causing all fuss in the diner to stop. Lorelai winced, "That came out way louder than I anticipated."

"Yeah." Luke turned to Taylor cutting off the man's rant. "She's bipolar."

With a shocked remark from Miss Patty, Luke and Lorelai continued their banter before the bell above the diner entrance dinged.

When no one made a sound, Luke looked up — and froze. Lorelai noticing his sudden lack of movement slowly turned in her chair to face the silent guest. A young boy, no older than her daughter Rory, stood before them and the rest of the silent diner. His dark hair was coated in a layer of gel to keep his "disheveled" look intact and his duffle bag was slung over his camouflaged shirt clad shoulder.

"Hey uncle Luke, how's it goin'?"


End file.
